Chicken 'is being contaminated with pig protein'

By Robert Uhlig, Food Correspondent

12:01AM BST 21 May 2003

A scandal in which fraudsters developed new methods of subterfuge to prevent inspectors from detecting tens of thousands of tons of chicken adulterated with proteins from pig and cow remnants will be exposed on television tomorrow night.

In a special investigation, Panorama has uncovered the "breathtaking lengths to which some protein manufacturers are now going to keep adding cow and pig to your chicken" without the knowledge of consumers, caterers or the regulators.

The investigation reveals that deliberate contamination of chicken is continuing in Holland despite complaints to the European Commission and formal investigations that could lead to criminal prosecutions being launched against persistent offenders.

John Sandford, a senior trading officer in Hull who took part in the investigation, said the Dutch chicken manufacturers were developing new methods to cover up their food fraud.

"The contamination is still going on but we are having to develop increasingly sensitive DNA detection techniques to detect it," he said. "It is abhorrent to those who wish to avoid beef and pork proteins for religious reasons, or who view chicken as a healthier option. Clearly, in this case, it is not."

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In March, Trading Standards officers uncovered a vast fraud in which seven Dutch manufacturers routinely dumped frozen chicken in Britain that had been pumped up by almost a quarter of its weight with water and chemicals.

The investigation found the fraud, involving 60,000 tons of chicken a year, about 40 per cent of imports, meant that almost three quarters of the chicken supplied to restaurants, takeaways, schools, and caterers were not worthy of the labels of chicken breast or fillet. More than half were pumped up with water and chemicals to boost their weight.

The Food Standards Agency and local authorities vowed to clamp down on the practice, which is fraudulent if the true content of the meat is not declared, and said criminal prosecutions were likely to follow.

But according to Panorama, the practice is still going on.

"We have been targeting the persistent and repeat offenders, but a handful keep coming back again and again," Mr Sandford said.

He said that had the companies been British, "we are fairly confident we could have dealt with them severely". "Because they are abroad, it is more difficult and we have to use diplomatic routes which are tedious to say the least."

Four British distributors of imported adulterated chicken have been prosecuted in the past five years.